


Developing Instincts

by Eliyes



Category: X-Force (Comics)
Genre: Gen, M/M, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-26
Updated: 2013-09-26
Packaged: 2017-12-27 17:34:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/981707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eliyes/pseuds/Eliyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rictor is a worrywart. Shatterstar is a loose cannon. How their friendship didn't give Ric ten different kinds of nervous tic remains a mystery.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Developing Instincts

**Author's Note:**

> Set during _X-Force #29-30_ , between Rictor dropping Shatterstar off and picking him up again. 1st person narration by Rictor (figured I'd give a heads up on that since some people don't like it).
> 
> This story was originally posted on Livejournal June 10, 2008.
> 
> I thought about using the Pre-Slash tag because, well, they do later end up together in canon, but this fic isn't really pre-slash. It's probably more tentative, bewildered friendship with a mild _frisson_ of physical attraction.

 

The problem with Shatterstar -- No, wait. Stop. Back up a step.

There are a lot of personal dynamics going on with my team. Some stuff I don't get 'cause I don't see it, but I can tell you how _I_ relate to people. Like everybody knows I love Boom-Boom. I really _know_ her -- and she knows _me_ , which is how she can get under my skin so easily. It's okay, though. That's just how we are. She's like a sister to me. A really hot sister I'm not related to, but I swear, I am _so_ over that crush.

Sam I trust. Sam I will let lead me anywhere, within limits. As measurement: I trust him with Boom-Boom's heart. Yeah, yeah, she's a big girl and she can take care of herself, but I don't even need to tell him that if he ever hurts her I'll help her hide the body, because he knows already. I don't think it will come to that. Anyway, I really like Sam. He knows how to handle people without being manipulative, and he actually gives a damn about us. He's got stronger morals than me. All in all, for a guy who regularly smashes into things head-first at high speeds? He's got a good head on his shoulders.

Cable, on the other hand, I trust about as far as I can throw him. Considering he probably weighs like lead with all that metal in him, I doubt I could lift him an inch. So there you go. He's got a nasty attitude, a fucked-up set of priorities, and a secretive streak as wide as the Pacific friggin' Ocean. He sees us as soldiers. He thinks we're expendable. Worst of all, he's a _telepath_. He may not have actually been the one to kill my father, but I still really, _really_ don't like the guy.

Most everyone else is a grab-bag of weaker reactions. 'Berto is an alright guy; he gets along with Boom-Boom and Sam depends on him, even if he is a hothead. Domino is easier to deal with than Cable, but her first loyalty is always to him, and she makes that clear. Terry's got problems, but when she's off the booze she's okay, if moody. Jimmy is shockingly mellow for a guy his size, with a sneaky sense of humour and a pyro streak. Feral I'd love to drop down a hole and never have to deal with again.

Right now, taken as a group, the pros outweigh the cons.

And then there's Shatterstar.

Supposedly, he's an other-dimensional mutant alien from the future. He's kind of a bastard, too. I get the sense that he's lonely, but it's like _he_ doesn't know it. He's the misfit in a whole group of freaks, and his attempts to fit in just make him seem _weirder_ , because Earth is so outside his context. I think he watches so much TV to try to learn about us -- no, I know it, because he insists it's a fantastic cultural art form. He's dangerous, too. Those swords aren't for show.

He's also _supernaturally_ hot.

Not that I'd ever tell him so, but I don't need to: he knows. He's really vain. Except, it's weird, he acts oblivious to how it affects anyone else. I've seen other people from where he's from, and they aren't all super-babes. A lot of them are animal people, and the worst are big evil blobs of custard riding robo-spiders.

I wish I was kidding, but I'm not.

Somehow, we've become friends. Can't really pinpoint when it happened, but --

Now he's the first one I go to to yak about a video game. That used to be Boom-Boom. I hang out with him, even get sent off with him on missions a lot. Sometimes he just tells me stuff about his world. I get the impression that he asks _me_ more questions about _this_ world than he does anyone else.

Occasionally, he does something that really reminds me of Rusty. When I first noticed I though maybe I was treating him like a surrogate. Now, not so much. I mean, they've got some stuff in common -- arrogant, pushy, know-it-all redheads who don't know as much as they think, the both of them -- but it's different. I think maybe I _like_ Shatterstar a whole lot more, and I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with Rusty skivving off to join the other side.

Shatterstar comes across as very serious most of the time, and so did Rusty... but somehow I can't picture Rusty arguing the finer points of _Star Wars_ over pizza. Shatty is unintentionally funny a lot of the time, but you have to learn to take it in stride, because he gets his back up when he gets laughed at too often.

See, that, right there? I've become the closest thing to an expert on interpreting the guy that we've got. I remember when he was unfathomable, completely. Not that he's an open book _now_ , but at least we're getting closer to speaking the same language, metaphorically. Stumbling and saying stuff we maybe wouldn't if there wasn't this cultural barrier to be kicked down.

Of course, some things I've learned you can't get away with saying. It's amazing how macho I'm expected to be, these days. Besides, Shatterstar would get offended if I told him, for instance, that I worry about him. Crazy, I know: Shatterstar is pretty much a bad thing that happens to people, not the other way around. It's true, though. He hasn't got all the instincts he needs to deal with this world.

Unfortunately, he won't develop them if he doesn't get out on his own now and then. He's like Alice down the rabbit-hole out there. Just an Alice who's as likely to behead the queen as vice versa. You know, the kind of thing that gets you life in prison.

I can't shake the bad feeling I have about leaving him to his own devices while I shop. An entire day of uncensored, unsupervised Shatterstar. I bet this is what having a kid feels like. I'm worrying like a dad whose teeny-bopper baby girl has started dressing like a grown woman and going out with her friends, unchaperoned.

By some miracle, Sam got Shatterstar to leave his swords at the base, so the potential for carnage _should_ be limited.

Even so, I've got a helluva bad feeling about this....  



End file.
